The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1887-02-17
LIFE IN SIBERIA.
HOW PEOPLE LIVE IN THE COOLEST INRAB
TABLE SPOT ON THE GLOBE

United States Navy, who was sent to the
Lena Delta in Northwestern Siberia TO
deliver to the natives gifts from the
Government OF the United States to re-
pay them for the aid they rendered him
in his search for the missing members of
the Jeanette party, has recently return
&c from there. He says that the town
, OF Ferbynsk, Siberia, is the coolest in
habited spot in the world. The thermo
meter stood eighty SIX below zero when
he WAS there, and he says 1T seldom
goes above fifty below. l asked him the
other day what the people did who lived
at this blissfuI spot; what they had to eat
and how they liked it.
why" he replied, they think it is
pretty good sort of climate. Home,
Sweet Home, is the song all the world
over, and if the Veroynskers should come
here they would wonder what people did
where 1t is SO hot. They would smother
in tGis climate and pine for stiff North
westerly Arctic gale. 1t is wonderful
the amount OF cold human flesh can en-
dnra The natives of Terra del Fuego
go Stark naked the year round, and IN
their country 1t freezes every night. 1t
Is much colder In the Lena Delta, yet
the people manage to keep comfortable,
and more die Of smallpox and scurvy
than from the effects of the intense cold.
You seldom hear of any ones freezing to
death, and then it is only those who ex-
pose themselves imprudently. More
people are frozen to death IN the United
States than in Siberia"
s'But how do they manage to keep
warm?"
"Well, in the first place the Yakuts are
an enduring race, and are born III that
climate. Their houses are built OF logs,
smeared over on the outside and inside
with mud. Ia each cabin Is a large Ere
place which Is used for both heating and
cooking. There is seldom more than
one room in these cabins, and usually the
owners cattle, if he has any, occupy one
end of the room III which he lives, being
tied or prevented from trampliug on the
babies by bar. The houses are com.
monty very comfortable, but are awfuliy
dirty, and smell--theTe Is no word TO de-
scribe it. Often until / got used 10 it l
would rather lie down in the snow out
side, with the thermometer 30 deg. below
zero, than sleep III one of these nuts"
"Have they windows in their houses"
Yes ice windows. They use ice as
we use glass. A clear piece is selected,
about five or six inches thick, morticed
IN the window opening in blocks two feet
and sometimes as large as four feet
square, and with water is made solid.
The water is as good as putty. When
the window becomes dirty they scrape it
off with a knife, and when it has been
scraped thin they substitute a new
pane"
Doesn't the window ever melt?"
Bless You, no; 1t is freezing cold that
far from the fire. If the room ever got
warm enough to melt the ice the Yakut
couldn't live.
"How do they sleep7 Do they undress
when they go to bedF'
always. They strip to their shirts,
which ara made of thick sort of Russian
cloth as heavy as our canvas. The men
and women wear the same kind of gar
ments, aud never have more than one at
a time. l took up lot of thick flannel
for them, enough to last the rest of their
lives, and it VIII be a great deal more
comfortable than the native stuff. al.
though they don't ike it at first. When
they uuGrass they get into hunks built
in the side of the house, sometimes q
man, his wife aud all his CD lldern in the
same bunk. They have reindeer skins
under and over them, and curtains of the
sans hanging before the hunks. The
last man or women to undress hangs all
the clothing of the rest out doors over a
pole that is kept for that purpose"
'What is that fOrf"
"To freeze the lice. They couldn't
live if they didn't do it, and it has be
come national custom. The lice get
iuto the fur, and that is the only way TO
get them out. By hanging their clothes
over the pole every night they can keep
reasonably free from them, bat the fur
fills up again the next day."
''Do they ever bathe?"
"Never III their lives; they havn't any
word for bathing in their language, and
the impossibility of keeping clean is one
of the greatest hardships of Arctic life."
"What do they eat?"
''Relndeer meat, beef-they have
cows, queer looking animals about half
as large as ours, with hummock on
their backs like a camel-fsh, bread
made of black rye -four, tea and an i'm
ported food made of chopped beef rolled
into balls about the size of a marble and
covered with dough. Mixed with rein.
deer meat it makes good souD. They
often eat their fab raw. Of course they
freeze solid as soon as they are taken out
Of the water, and she native, particularly
if he is on the road, cuts them off IN
shavings as thin as our Clipped beef and
eats them raw. They are palatable aud
[ have lived for days at time on them,
with cup Of tea made over an alcohol
lamp by way Of variety. The greatest
luxury they have is butter, aud they will
eat 1t by the pound as our people eat
confectionery. A poor sort of butter
is made from the milk of the native COW
that looks and tastes more like cheese,
and they prize it above all other classes
of food.
''Thelr drink is the Russian Vodka.
almost pure alcohol, and they will trade
their shirts for it. The liquor is scarce